Since googling didn’t work the last time I tried to find a fix, I went through M$‘s Windows Live Messenger’s newsgroup earlier today and actually found a fix to the problem I had! Here’s the fix which worked for me (Credit to Jonathan Yaniv for the steps below):
- Go to Start, run, then type “regedit”
- Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\microsoft\MSNMessenger\Policies
- Delete the key “contacts.msn.com”
- Then, try launching Windows Live Messenger again.
Apparently the full uninstallation I did the last time did not remove any of the messenger registry keys (I forgot to check on that either).
I guess you could say this is probably one of the very few M$ software which I would gladly choose to use over other alternative software. :P Do try out the excellent Messenger Plus! Live extension if you’re already using WLM (adds heaps of features like tabbed chats, etc). Just remember to refuse the installation of the sponsor program unless you want adware/spyware installed on your machine. ;)